Our family is full of all sorts of artistic people. As individuals each of us work on a daily basis to get closer to our goals. This blog is dedicated to our adventures in trying to capture our dreams. You'll read anything from publishing woes all the way to botched photo shoots. Hopefully through it all you will learn tips on what to do and what not to do.

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Find Your Voice

I would like to apologize for the delayed blogging. I had a bit of technical difficulties with my laptop, but now I'm back. I started working on this blog post before the issue and am now posting it for your reading pleasure.

My daughter is going to film camp this summer. Might I add as the proud mom here it's to a highly distinguished invite only type of thing. A couple weeks ago her scholarship information arrived. She has to choose from a list of questions and write an essay about it. One of the questions immediately drew me in: What movie or movie moment inspired you to become what you are? Now if it were me having to write the questions it wouldn't be a problem as my own answer came to me immediately. It would be a 1980's movie starring Christian Slater entitled Pump Up the Volume. It's about this pirate radio DJ who brings relief to a group of drone high school students. In the climax of the movie he tells his listeners, "Find your voice and use it. Be the voice in the darkness."

Find your voice and use it! I love that thought. As writers we struggle with finding our voice and maintaining it throughout our story. I personally struggled with finding the genre I wanted to write and than find myself after years settling into my niche. My question today is do you find yourself writing in the voice/genre that you enjoy reading or something completely different? Are you trying to be the unique voice in the darkness?

It took me forever to find the right voice for my YA fantasy, especially since I grew up reading more realistic YA novels. But the fantasy voice stood out above the rest and is the one I appreciate the most. It's amazing what a character can tell you. BTW, thanks for following me! :)